“Fear: Trump in the White House” Review

“With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide.” –Zig Ziglar

“Power is fear.”–Donald Trump

It makes perfect sense that Trump would make that statement. Power, of course, does not immediately require fear to be operational. Bosses have power, but a good boss is hardly considered someone who operates through promoting fear in his subordinates. And good presidents don’t inspire fear. Obama certainly did not. W. may have inspired fear since he was an idiot, but he didn’t consider fear a mandatory part of his job. Nor did Clinton, certainly or any reasonable man you can name.

But Trump believes that fear goes hand in hand with being the POTUS. That explains why he has contempt for our allies and tons of admiration for Putin or Kim Jong un, dictators who are known to have everyone from political enemies to family members poisoned, shot, or otherwise dispatched of. They inspire fear in their population, and Trump wants to do that as well. He despises the media because, rather than fear him, they dare to criticize him. He wants the media to fear him, his staff and secretaries to fear him, the voters to fear him. Or just love him unreservedly, something I’m reasonably sure even his wife doesn’t do.

Into Trump’s world of threats, deceit and chaos comes Bob Woodward, one of the men who helped bring down Nixon. Woodward has written numerous books about Presidents, but as the Trump administration slides deeply toward Nixonian paranoia and retribution, Woodward seems singularly qualified to conduct interviews and try to draw a genuine framework of what’s happening behind the scenes.

Much of the “secret” stuff has been exposed in other books, but one was always suspicious of either the sources or the books’ narrators. When Woodward, however, attributes certain quotes to certain people, you are convinced of the truth of the assertions. Woodward is entirely about truth; to him, that’s Journalism 101. You know that everyone he quotes, he both has it on tape and he’s also got it from multiple sources because in proper reporting, every fact should be verified by two or even three sources. At no point is Woodward lax in that regard, which leaves you more and more stunned about Trump’s White House. Whether he is insulting his subordinates to their faces with others around or condemning them on Twitter, Trump is depicted as a man who is utterly devoid of human empathy. I think we all figured that out back when 9/11 happened, where his initial reaction was to point out that he now had the tallest building in NYC mere hours after three thousand people died in the WTC collapse.

He has no empathy and more, as the lead quote indicates, he has no integrity. Woodward makes the inevitable case that Trump cares about one thing and one thing only: himself. He is a narcissistic, compulsive liar. Woodward gives us instances where Trump is shown saying one thing and then later flat out denies he said it. His subordinates keep trying to find ways to maneuver him, including just swiping papers off the desk so that he will not sign them and hopefully forget about them.

That is, of course, no way to run a country. People who were not elected to office have no business undercutting the chief executive. On the other hand, the things they prevent him from doing are terrible, whether it’s having others executed even though we’re not at war with them, or instituting tariffs that will make a shambles of the world economy (“Fear” ends before Trump actually implemented his tariff policies that were loudly supported by one man who pretty much every other economist in business decried as an idiot.)

Woodward gives us quintessential Trump, whether he is blusteringly ignoring good advice or declaring that he knows things are wrong and he’s right because he “just knows,” even though Trump’s instincts are 100% off the rails.

Woodward’s style is as flat as it ever is, and sometimes the book drags if Trump is not present on the page. But in this day and age where reportage is often accompanied by screaming idiots who are thrusting their opinions forward, oftentimes with no support, it’s refreshing to see a nonstop litany of “just the facts, ma’am.” Sadly enough, the person you find yourself admiring the most is Rob Porter, who becomes an essential Trump confidant who is determined to do whatever it takes to prevent Trump from sending us spiraling into World War III. Yet he lost the gig when word of his spousal abuse came out. I thoroughly understand why he had to go when all that became public, and yet even one of the women he abused said, “I definitely want him in the White House and the position he is in. I think his integrity and ability to do his job is impeccable.” When you get done reading “Fear,” you will likely agree with her.

PAD